Ruby danced through the Grimm, hacking left and right with her massive scythe. "This is easy!" Ruby thought gaily as she cut through the Beowolves like butter. While the darkness the Grimm represented was strong, that darkness had some trouble existing when a girl like Ruby was around. Especially when she was waving one of the most dangerous weapons ever built.

Hearing a clacking behind her, Ruby spun to meet the new threat, conveniently slicing through the last standing Beowolf as she brought Crescent Rose around, ready to fight.

What she saw confused her for a moment. It was definitely a Deathstalker, but it was so... small. "Small being relative," Ruby thought with a wry smile. The Deathstalker was easily the size of a horse, but that was still a step down from the massive scorpions that she usually had to fight. "Hey, Weiss!" Ruby called out to her partner. "Come check this out!"

As Ruby's attention shifted for just a moment, the Deathstalker made its move. The scorpion's tail lanced forward, far faster than any Deathstalker Ruby had ever encountered. Using her Semblance, Ruby managed to spin out of the way of the stinger diving toward, though not enough to dodge a long, shallow cut along the outside of her arm. "Ouch!" Ruby yelped, a bit surprised that she had been wounded. As she turned back towards the small Deathstalker, she was even more surprised to see it launched into the air on a pillar of ice. "Now, Ruby!" a high pitched voice called out from across the clearing, just as a cluster of glyphs locked the Deathstalker helplessly in midair. "Take it down!"

Shaking off her surprise, Ruby leapt into the air with the help of a few shots from Crescent Rose. Somersaulting in the air to add extra power to her strike, she drove Crescent Rose's long scythe blade down into the Deathstalker's exposed chest, embedding the blade up to the haft. The glyphs holding the scorpion vanished, and it fell to the ground with Ruby on top of it. Pulling Crescent Rose free, Ruby folded Crescent Rose into its storage mode, and then turned to meet her... partner...

Weiss surveyed her and Ruby's handiwork with satisfaction. "That was a good combo for killing such large enemies" Weiss though, pleased. "I'll have to remember that one." Something caught her eye, however, and she stepped forward, examining the Deathstalker She and Ruby had just killed. It was definitely smaller than usual, and the normally light orange eyes and stinger seemed to be tinged green. "That's unusual..."

Weiss turned to ask Ruby what she thought about the Deathstalker's strange features, but was slightly interrupted by Ruby nearly tackling her. "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyy, Weissy!" Ruby squealed wrapping her arms around Weiss' neck.

Weiss, for all her training, was taken slightly off guard by all of this. As she tried to dispel the slight blush that was tinting her cheeks, what Ruby had said hit home.

"Did you just call me... Weissy?" Weiss asked, altogether unsure of what was happening. Ruby responded by nodding furiously, a wide grin spreading across her face. "May I ask why?"

"Because it sounds cute and nice." Ruby chirped, still grinning and hanging off Weiss' neck. Abruptly changing the subject, Ruby said, "Have you ever thought about how pretty and colorful the world is?"

"Umm..." Weiss said, a bit nonplussed. "Not really... I guess?"

"Just looook at it!" Ruby cried, gesturing around at the scene around them. "Blue like the sky, brown like the trees, green like the leaves..."

Weiss mentally slapped herself, trying to regain control of where this conversation was going. She hadn't taken years of etiquette and diplomacy lessons for this girl to turn her into a confused mess! She had to admit, Ruby's proximity wasn't helping. "Ruby," Weiss pointed out, trying to calm the girl down, "We're in Forever Fall. The leaves are red."

"Red!" Ruby cried out, the sudden change in volume almost deafening Weiss. "Red like roses!" A small giggle escaped the girl. "Hee hee, I'm a rose."

"Ruby, are you feeling alright?" Weiss asked, suddenly feeling a bit uneasy with the whole situation. While being a cute dunce was par for the course, this was a bit out of character for the younger girl.

"Weiss!" Ruby suddenly interjected, her face deadly serious. Weiss felt a flutter of panic rise in her, though she carefully kept her face neutral. Ruby's next words dispelled any worry she was feeling, however.

"Do you... like roses?"

"Erm... sure I guess. They're pretty, and they do smell nice." Weiss replied, still a bit confused as to what was happening.

"Okay, that's good then." Ruby said happily, her face returning to its previous grin. She went back to naming colors, for a reason Weiss had yet to discern. "Yellow like the sun... white like snow..." At that, Ruby paused again. "I like snow. Snow is fun. Snow can be pretty too."

Even more confused now, Weiss turned to see the other half of Team RWBY walk over a crest on the far side of the clearing they had been fighting in, with Yang talking animatedly to Blake. Suddenly painfully aware of how close Ruby was holding her, Weiss tried to extricate herself from Ruby's grip, but to no avail.

"Hey guys, how did you d-" Yang stopped short as she made sense of the tangle of Ruby and Weiss. Her eyes flashed red as she asked, quietly and dangerously, "Weiss, what the HELL are you doing to my sister?"

"The question is what is your sister doing to ME!" Weiss cried shrilly, trying to defuse the situation while Blake looked on, vaguely amused. "Damnit Ruby," Weiss whispered, "get off me!"

Ruby, however, still seemed to be in her own little world. She pointed towards Yang and shouted, "See! Yellow like the sun!" With Yang now looking almost as confused as Weiss, Ruby switched her attention to Blake. "And black like... like..." Ruby trailed off, looking confused.

Yang took advantage of Ruby's silence to ask, "Is she okay? You don't have any booze out here or something do you?"

"Of course not," Weiss said, scandalized, "She's underage! We're all underage!"

Yang shrugged. "Never bothered me-"

"Black like a KITTY!" Ruby loudly interjected, grinning proudly up at the rest of her team as she shifted her grip on Weiss' neck, foiling all of the Schnee's attempts to free herself.

Blake flinched noticeably and looked around frantically, making sure no one had heard Ruby's exclamation. While her team knew her and accepted her as a Faunus, Blake wasn't quite ready for anyone else to know. "Ruby!" Blake whispered forcefully, "What the hell are you doing? You know that's a secret!"

Ruby, once again, ignored the rest of the world and continued to grin widely and hug Weiss. Now all confused at the younger girl's antics, the rest of Team RWBY looked at each other.

"Well, I guess we should head back," Yang volunteered. "The time for the rendezvous with the rest of the teams must be getting close by now."

Blake and Weiss both nodded, and with Weiss half-dragging Ruby, the foursome turned and began to walk towards where they were meeting the other teams before returning to Beacon.

They had been walking for less than five minutes when Ruby's grasp suddenly slipped from around Weiss' neck. Weiss turned, cursing herself for how she missed the warmth, and looked at Ruby.

What she saw there chilled her blood. Far from the bouncy, silly girl that had been pointing out colors just minutes before, Ruby was now staring down at her hands with genuine fear on her face.

Weiss stopped, and told Yang and Blake, "Wait. I think there's something wrong with Ruby." Something in her voice got both girls to whirl around, apprehensive as to what could be the problem.

Yang stepped towards her younger sister, reaching out to grab the young girl's shoulders. "Hey Rubes," She said softly, "Is there something wrong"

"I... um... I..." Ruby stuttered, looking confused now as well as scared. Suddenly, Ruby's eyes widened and she brought both hands up to her mouth and began to cough, a hacking cough that shook her shoulders and seemed to stagger her. The coughing stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and Ruby slowly brought her hands down from her mouth.

Hands that were now sticky with blood.

"Oh no..." Yang breathed as Weiss gave a yelp and even the normally calm Blake started as they stared at Ruby, her hands stained red.

"...it's cold..." Ruby murmured as she began to shake. Eyes widening, Ruby reached out towards Weiss. "Weiss, why is it so cold? WHY IS IT-"

In the middle of her scream, Ruby suddenly froze, completely unmoving. As Weiss, Blake, and Yang stared at her in horror, she simply tipped over like wheat before a scythe, her red cloak fluttering as she fell. A moment of silence passed as the three girls still standing stared at each other in shock, comparing the still girl on the ground to the normally so animated Ruby.

The silence was broken when Ruby began to whimper in pain.

Blake, the most accustomed to such situations from her days in the White Fang, was the first to move. She pulled out her scroll and hammered Beacon's emergency number into the keypad. As she stared at the device, willing it to connect, Weiss and Yang dropped to their knees beside Ruby.

"What can we do?" Yang shouted helplessly, panicking a bit as she stared at her younger sister. "There must be some way we can help!"

"Umm... Umm..." Weiss stammered, too flustered to remember any of her classes on first aid. Breathing deeply to calm herself down, she began to look Ruby over. "I... I think first we need to figure out what's wrong with- " Weiss' voice caught in her throat as she moved Ruby's arm and saw the long thin cut that the Deathstalker had given her. The edges of the wound had turned a dark, necrotic black, and Ruby's very flesh around it was turning a sickly green that Weiss knew she would remember for the rest of her life. "Oh my god..." Weiss breathed in horror. "She's been poisoned..."

"Then what can we DO?" Yang shouted again. "She's going to die! We have to do something!"

Behind her, Blake let out a cry of relief as her scroll finally connected, as far as they were from civilization. Before the operator even had a chance to speak, Blake said into the scroll, "This is team RWBY. Our team leader is down, and I'm not sure what's wrong with her. Please send us help!"

The voice on the other end of the scroll was calm and professional. "Alright, stay calm and stay where you are. Keep this call open so I can triangulate your position, okay? You should be no more than ten minutes out, so there will be a med airship with you soon." The voice softened a bit, undoubtedly aware of the young age of the girls on the other end of the line. "Everything is going to be fine. Just hang tight."

Blake looked towards the other girls, her face a mix of hope and fear. "Ten minutes or less," She told Yang and Weiss. "Is... she going to make it?"

Weiss looked towards Blake, then back to Ruby, unable to find her voice. Yang, however, managed to sum up her thoughts.

"I... I don't think so..." Yang whispered, choking up as she did so. Tears began to roll down face as she moaned, "Ruby... oh Ruby..." Blake moved over to her and embraced her, holding her as Yang began to sob for her precious sister.

Weiss shook herself, refusing to accept this turn of events. She was a Schnee! She had trained for years to become the most perfect person possible, and now, even with all her skills, was her partner really going to die in front of her? She wracked her brain, trying to come up with something, anything that could save the precious girl who had become her friend. Suddenly, an idea sprang to her mind- a terrible idea, but an idea nonetheless.

"What are you doing?" Yang hiccuped as Weiss pulled out Myrtenaster, cycling the chamber to a light blue Dust. "I'm going to freeze her." Weiss replied with more confidence than she felt. "If I can put her in stasis, maybe the poison will be slowed, or even stopped.

"Are you insane?" Yang shouted through her tears, impotent anger finding an outlet in Weiss. "Are you trying to KILL her?"

Weiss shouted right back. "Look at her Yang! I have to try something!" The mask of perfection Weiss always held slipped a bit as she stared at Yang, revealing the terror and desperation underneath. "Yang, she's going to die. I have to try something, anything." With Yang momentarily cowed, Weiss switched her attention backed to Ruby, noting with pain the way she had become deadly still, her whimpers the only proof that she was still alive. Laying Myrtenaster's blade flat on Ruby's chest, Weiss took a deep breath and called on her semblance. Glyphs of blue and white materialized above Ruby, floating down like snowflakes to blossom into flowers of frozen Dust on the prone girl's body. As Ruby's body became covered in a glass-like shroud of frozen Dust, Weiss whispered softly, "Sleep now, Ruby. Everything will be all right."

When the airship arrived a few minutes later, Weiss was still repeating those words to herself. As the frozen Ruby was loaded on to the airship, with a few questioning glances shot at the trio of girls by the medics, Yang broke down completely. She cried into Blake's chest as the Faunus girl stroked her hair and tried to conceal her own tears. As the airship took off and sped towards Beacon, Weiss hugged herself and whispered one last time, "Everything is going to be alright."


No symbolism here. Nope, not at all.

Anyway, hello everybody, and thank you for reading my story. I'm thinking this one will be a fairly short story, but we'll see. Either way, I hope you enjoy it!

Please leave a review with criticsm or complements, that will really help me write. Even if you just want to yell at me for having Ruby brutally murdered by a flesheating poison, I'll take that! If you review with an account, I will try to answer back, 'cause that's always fun.